Praised as “passionate and elegant” by The New York Times, cellist Amy Sue Barston has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at major venues worldwide. Third generation in a lineage of Juilliard-trained professional musicians, she began playing cello at age three and first performed as a concerto soloist when she was twelve. At age seventeen, she appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony on live television, won Grand Prize in the Society of American Musicians’ Competition, and First Place and the Audience Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She continued her studies at the University of Southern California as a student of Eleonore Schoenfeld and at The Juilliard School as a student of Joel Krosnick.
Today she is in demand as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist. She is the cellist of the critically acclaimed Corigliano Quartet and is co-founder of the Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival in New York. She is also a devoted teacher: in her home, at the New York School for Strings, as a guest at Juilliard, and at master classes throughout the world, including The National Cello Institute and international Suzuki conferences and festivals.
An avid interpreter of contemporary works, she has premiered chamber and solo music by such leading composers as Ned Rorem, Osvaldo Golijov, and John Tavener. She frequently performs string quartets and trios with Grammy-winning violinist/composer Mark O’Connor in concerts of his original compositions.
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